In various industries, one or more entities are analyzed or otherwise examined, after which a report is generated to memorialize the entity and the examination thereof. In the medical industry, for example, physicians and/or other medical personnel often examine bodily organs, and thereafter generate a report memorizing the bodily organ and their examination thereof. These reports can then be used, such as by the same or other medical personnel, for a number of different purposes including medical diagnosis, treatment, or the like.
As will be appreciated, in many instances, generating a report from the examination of an entity often includes the generation of graphical data acquired during or after examination of the entity, the graphical data being representative of portions or all of the entity. Thereafter, text-based information describing or otherwise interpreting portions of the entity are generated from the graphical data. For example, in performing a cardiac catheterization procedure, graphical data of a patient's heart is often acquired, and thereafter converted into a text-based report so that medical personnel anywhere can read and understand the interpretation of that graphical data. In this regard, cardiac catheterization reports typically include a number of different pieces of information related to the heart including, for example, an indication of each significant anatomical feature, each anatomical variant, each aberration due to a disease process, each stent present or required, and each by-pass graft that is present or required on the heart.
In the medical industry, a number of different techniques have been developed to generate a report based upon the examination of a bodily organ, such as the heart. In accordance with one of the more common techniques, referred to as the dictation technique, after acquiring or otherwise receiving images of an examined organ, a physician reviews the images and dictates information related to the organ into a voice capture device. To assist in dictating information related to the organ, the physician will often sketch portions of the images of the organ on a progress note along with a longhand summary of the physician's examination of the organ. Once the physician has dictated information related to the organ, the information is transcribed and formatted into a report, such as by a transcriptionist who must login to a secure voice recording system to access the physician's dictation. Thereafter, the physician must typically review and sign-off on the transcribed, formatted report to thereby formalize the report and end the physician's responsibility with respect to the report.
The dictation technique is adequate for examining a bodily organ and generating a report therefrom. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, however, the dictation technique has a number of drawbacks. In this regard, by requiring a number of different tasks, some of which are performed by different entities, the dictation technique can require an undesirably long time to formalize, typically from 48 hours or more. Also, whereas sketching portions of the images of the organ and preparing a longhand summary help the physician organize their thoughts before or as the physician dictates information related to the examined organ, such preparation also further adds time to that required to formalize the report.
In an effort to overcome a number of the drawbacks of the dictation technique, a number of different software packages have been developed to decrease the number of different tasks and time required to complete a report. In addition, a number of these software packages employ visual representations of portions of the human anatomy that, along with the completed report, better memorialize the examination of a bodily organ. One particular software package for generating a report based upon examination of a bodily organ is distributed by Cyberpulse™ Clinical Knowledge Systems. The Cyberpulse™ software package itself includes a drawing portion and a text-based reporting portion that are capable of generating a report based upon “drop-down” menus of notes to include in the drawing portion or phrases to include in the text-based reporting portion. In operation, a physician reviews images of an examined bodily organ and sketches elements of the organ to include in a report, or communicates those elements to a software technician. Using the Cyberpulse™ software package, the technician creates a drawing of the examined organ based upon the physician's sketches by selecting a “best fit” static graphic representation from a template library of graphic representations, and thereafter stacking static elements on top of that graphic representation to form a representation of the organ. The technician then selects various phrases to include in the text-based reporting portion, with the drawing of the examined organ and text-based reporting portion forming a report of the examined organ. Then, after reviewing the report, the physician signs-off on the report to thereby formalize the report and end the physician's responsibility with respect to the report.
Whereas software packages such as the Cyberpulse™ software package overcome drawbacks of the dictation technique, these software packages also have drawbacks. In this regard, many software packages for generating reports are too complex for a physician to utilize without the aid of a technician. Also, because creating a drawing and report requires navigating screen after screen, and from one set of menus to another, the actual time required to generate a report can be two to three times longer than the time required to transcribe a physician's dictation in the dictation technique. In addition, the graphical representation and reports generated by software packages such as Cyberpulse™ may be less customized for a particular patient or organ examination since the graphic and report elements are all pre-formed and simply dropped into the final graphic and report, respectively. In fact, elements that vary greatly in their appearance may not even be visually represented on the graphical representation, instead being represented as a text-block placeholder for their location. Further, the sketches and other information supplied by the physician may be too vague or otherwise misunderstood by a technician, or may even misrepresent the desired anatomical region, thereby resulting in a faulty report with a number of errors. Such a report may then be rejected by the physician upon review, forcing the physician and technician to resolve the errors in the report, or worse yet, inadvertently signed-off on by the physician.